Eye color defect phenomenon (for example red eyes) is usually observed in images captured in low ambient illumination conditions. Typically, in low ambient illumination conditions, flashlight of an image-capturing device (such as a camera) is reflected by pupils of eyes of a subject that often results in unnatural reddening of a pupil region in an image. In certain cases, the eyes of the subjects may appear in other reddish shades, such as golden, orange and the like. Occurrence of the eye color defect phenomenon may be attributed to various other factors also, such as a small angle between the flashlight of the image capturing device and the lens thereof, proximity of the subject to the image capturing device, and the like.
Typically, in order to avoid appearance of the red eyes in the images, image capturing devices are utilized that may include a secondary lamp or light that is flashed prior to capturing the image. The secondary lamp exposes the subject's eyes to light for few seconds before exposure to the actual flashlight, thereby giving the pupils enough time to contract. In some instances, instead of one full flash, the image-capturing device provides multiple pre-flashes that may produce the same effect as produced by single flash of the secondary lamp. However, such image capturing devices may introduce a time delay between a first flash and actual capturing of the image, due to which the subject may deviate from a posed position before the actual image is captured.
In some cases, user intervention may be required in correcting the eye color defect phenomenon in the images by processing the captured image to remove the color defects from the eyes. However, such user intervention in identifying and removing eye color defects may prove cumbersome and inefficient. Furthermore, such devices may often miss other known eye color defects of different hues and intensities such as golden eyes, orange eyes and the like.